The Two-Way

1:00 pm

Fri August 9, 2013

Glock Vs. Glock: Gun Tycoon Loses Alimony Battle

The family behind the Glock gun company has been locked in court battles stemming from founder Gaston Glock's 2011 divorce from his wife of 49 years, Helga.

Jay DirectoAFP/Getty Images

Gaston Glock, 84, has been ordered to pay alimony to his ex-wife, Helga, whom he divorced in 2011. The couple had been married for 49 years. The founder of the Austrian gun company "divorced Helga in order to marry a woman about 50 years his junior," Agence France-Presse reports.

Austria's highest court issued its ruling this week, after two lower courts had sided with Gaston Glock in what has been a lengthy court battle.

Gaston Glock had argued that his ex-wife was already wealthy and did not need assistance to live. But the country's Supreme Court said that "there is no so-called 'luxury' limit for alimony," court spokesman Christoph Brenn said Friday, according to Reuters.

Helga Glock, who reportedly was once a stakeholder in the family-owned gun company, believes her husband has hidden part of his wealth by using trusts and other instruments, Reuters says. The amount of alimony is to be determined by a lower court, which will investigate the gunmaker's wealth.

According to a report earlier this year in Bloomberg Business Week, Helga Glock believes her husband underwent a dramatic change after he suffered a stroke in 2008. She has filed a separate lawsuit seeking to regain an ownership stake in the giant gun company. From Bloomberg:

"Since 2010, the Austrian suit states, Helga Glock and her three adult children with Gaston have all been ousted from their roles with the company. Helga claims that she and her offspring—Brigitte, Gaston Jr., and Robert—spent decades helping the family company expand from a garage metal shop into a global powerhouse."